The Labour Council has decided to attack aspiration in Erdington by announcing a Garden tax on anyone wishing to use the Green Waste Recyclign sytem from February 2014. The proposed charge to Green Waste collections forms part of the Labour City Council budget proposals going to the City Council meeting next Tuesday. The Charge will be £35 per a household, for which the Labour Council will give you a green wheelie bin. The bin will remain the Labour Councils property and you will be liable for any damage or loss of the bin. The charge is expected to bring in £400,000 this financial year (it is being introduced in Feb 2014) it will then make £2.5million in future years. This is based on the Labour Council assuming only 20% of residents in the City will take up the service. The charge is based on a 10 month collection, fortnightly through the year. The collection is likely to ban side waste meaning that you will only be able to put out as much garden waste as fits in the bin, no more. The budget saving listed in the budget book, does not take into account the set up costs, nor invoice costs nor collection costs of such a service.

Cllr Robert Alden (Erdington) said “following a challenge that sending out invoices would lead to a loss to the Council, we have been told that no invoices will be needed as you will have to sign up to a direct debit and pay online to be able to have the Garden waste recycling collection”. Cllr Robert Alden went on to say “I have serious concerns about this suggested system. For the Council to say you have to sign up to something online would seem very discriminately. Many of the cities elderly residents, the very people who need a garden waste collection system as they cannot get it to the local tip, will not have a computer to pay for it online. Frankly the Labour Council making a Garden Waste recycling system that you have to pay for and you need a computer to sign up to is shocking. They are making a system that discriminates against people who cannot afford the charge or a computer. This Labour Council seems to be suggesting that people on the breadline don’t have Garden’s and so have no right to a Garden waste recycling service. This kind of charge is not very inclusive and certainly is not very one nation”.

It has previously been shown that sending out an invoice costs the City Council £36.50 each time so the £35 ‘Garden Tax’ would have led to a loss of £1.50 per a property.

Robert, Bob and Gareth are pictured by a clean up they did in Finsbury Grove, to get rid of the leaves for residents, when the Council refused to